Deep Diving Padma with Khusyuk (last @ SweNats 2024)

This is the janky deck I took to Swedish Nationals 2024 in Malmö! I wasn't really expecting it to do well or anything, but I wasn't expecting to come last, either. This deck went 0-3-0 on the day. I think it deserved a couple of wins!

I'm already thinking of ways to improve it, as I think the main idea is, not sound per se, but at least fun and more functional than it looks.

I loved the tournament! Thanks to Naim for organizing, to the judges, and to the fine folk who took themselves to Malmö to play Netrunner.

Here's the original description of the deck:

In a game of Netrunner, the runner basically needs to steal about 3-4 good agendas to win the game.

What if we could steal those all in one turn?

Enter Deep Dive, Khusyuk and various ways to gain clicks.

The plan

We're building up to a super turn. Until then, we try to pretend that we're setting up a rig to play regular Netrunner, and we try to slow the corp down if they seem to be going too fast. But what we're actually doing is try to set up the following as fast as possible:

• at least one Deep Dive in hand (preferably two)
• one Khusyuk in hand, and at least 4 cards of cost 2).
• icebreakers plus to confidently be able to deep dive
• one Upya with one power counter
• Swift

Then, run all centrals, using Khusyuk for R&D, and charge Upya with Padma.

If all were successful, you should now have 3 (you got one back from Swift plus a run event, and one more from Upya). With 3 and 2xDeep Dive in hand, you should be able to steal some agendas (more on how many below).

At a pinch, other run events like Overclock, S-Dobrado or Window of Opportunity can be used during the superturn. Act according to board state.

The math

Assuming the combo happens when R&D is at about 24-30 cards, and an agenda density of 1 out of 6 cards (ie 4-5 agendas in the deck), and assuming a Khusyuk of 4 cards (which are a lot of assumptions) we have an 80-86% chance to steal at least 2 agendas, and 40-55% to steal at least 3.

How do I know? I wrote a program to calculate it. There's even some graphs.

For agenda density 1 in 5, things look a lot better: 50-70% and 86-93% respectively.

Important lessons from the math:

• Khusyuk is the cherry on top, it doesn't change the probability that much (but it shuffles the deck before the first DD, which might be worth it if the corp has been stacking it).
• Once R&D falls below 4 agendas, our probabilities decrease significantly.
• We don't make any assumptions about the points on the agendas. Intuitively, though, the smaller the agenda density, the juicier the agendas, and the fewer we need to win. I didn't quantify that.
• Finally: 2-3 agendas are not always enough. We should aim to get an early agenda or one from the HQ/Archives runs of the super round.

Issues

The most important issue: we are too slow to set up. If we could set up faster, this could be a dangerous deck. When the corp lets us set up, we do well.

Anything that might cost us a or a run makes this combo harder. There is leeway to lose one , though, as after the requirement is fulfilled we still have 3. Even 2 can net you 2 agendas with one lucky DD or two mildly lucky ones (see math above).

Some card choices

• Flame-out is good to pay the cost of SMC, but near the super-turn, even to install a regular icebreaker on it.
• T400 Memory Diamond & Stoneship Chart Room were to fight tag & bag.

Future Tweaks

• Stoneship Chart Room doesn't really do much.
• One more Flame-out might be useful, to get it more consistently.
• Mayfly will likely combine perfectly with Flame-out, plus it's cheap (for Env. Testing).
• To go faster, we could invest some influence in a Simulchip or two, along with The Price. We should decrease the events to make space.
• Alternatively, Gachapon? We don't really have enough programs for that, but it combines with Environmental Testing well too.